November sunshine

I snapped this picture on Wednesday afternoon. We were heading towards Seattle and had a little time to kill before our ferry so turned down a road that we hadn’t before. In real time, it was a strikingly beautiful spot; in photographic record it is strikingly monochromatic. So very… November-like.

The descent into the dark days has felt gentler this year, maybe more of a slide than a tumble. But we have certainly settled into the gloom and I am feeling the familiar need to resist complete hibernation. Most days, it’s a challenge to break the gravitational pull of my semi-permanent nest at the end of the sofa under the good lamp. But it feels vital to get outside and move and breathe in the cold or the rain or the rare sunlight, and when yesterday dawned bright and blue there was no question that we were heading out for a bike ride.

We drove about 30 miles west and jumped on a section of the Olympic Discovery Trail, which is mostly a rail trail conversion. It was our first ride on the trail and it was great. Without a set destination, it was really tempting to just keep going “a little farther”, “just to see what’s over/around/past this”. Lucky for us, we came to our senses at the point when they warned us about the steepness of the descent ahead (i.e. ascent on the way home) because we were both pretty well beat by the time we got back to the truck. Beat, but filled up on November sunshine and happily dreaming up plans for next time.